We hardly need to tell you that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is something truly special; you certainly know that by now, not least thanks to our glowing review and the fact that yesterday the title received more nominations than any other game ever has at The Game Awards.
We have previously featured a very substantial interview with the eminent writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, who wrote the script, but there are of course other key people in the team who have been involved in creating this modern classic. Not least creative director Guillaume Broche.
In an interview with Eurogamer, he talks about what he thinks about gaming and specifically mentions a title that made a big impression on him, which is perhaps not entirely surprising given the heavy themes dealt with in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33:
"For me, Lost Odyssey was the last grand turn-based RPG adventure with realistic graphics. Its themes were very heavy and very well handled - it's the last game that made me cry."
If the name doesn't ring a bell, it's a Japanese role-playing game created by the father of the Final Fantasy series, Hironobu Sakaguchi. He left both Square Enix and Sony to make this and Blue Dragon exclusively for Microsoft for Xbox 360, and for a while managed to make Xbox more popular in Japan than PlayStation 3.
Just like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it's a turn-based role-playing game with timing elements in the battles, as well as lifelike characters and fairly realistic graphics. It's not a very common concept (although Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, along with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, show that it's a format people like).
Broche continues to praise Lost Odyssey, adding:
"It became a cult classic because few people played it, as it was available only on Xbox 360 while its core audience was probably more used to PlayStation consoles.
"But that core audience who did play it loved it. The critical reception at the time was very unfair in my opinion, as the game was criticized for being 'old school' at a time where it felt like every game that was not an open world was viewed as 'old school' by the Western press."
Lost Odyssey can actually still be enjoyed today thanks to the backward compatibility of Xbox Series S/X, so if you want to experience the game that made Broche cry, you can easily do so for a small price. He regrets that it never got a sequel and thinks it should get the remaster treatment, concluding by describing it in a way that could just as easily have been his own role-playing game:
"I didn't share that opinion at all, and its linear structure, coupled with a world map, an amazing story, and fantastic music, made it one of the best games of its kind."
What do you think about well-written and well-sounding role-playing games with reasonably realistic graphics, turn-based combat with timing elements, and a more linear structure?